Is Graham Blanks the best Ivy League distance runner of all time?

Six women have made US Olympic teams from the Ivy League

Morgan Uceny (Cornell) 1x Olympics

Meredith Rainey (Harvard) 2x Olympics

Lynn Jennings (Princeton) 3x Olympics (Bronze)

Kate Grace and Katie O'Neill (Yale) 1x Olympics each

Abby D'Agostino (Dartmouth) 1x Olympics

Indoor track racing used to be extremely difficult 45 or so years ago. Indoor, for 1500m to 5000m is closer to a treadmill today. Let's see how this fella races, U.S. Olympic Trials.

Yes if we are talking about a Male runner. He has won ever Ivy distance title. He has won the indoor 3k and 5k. Outdoor 5k and 10k. Won the regional XC title twice. Won Nuttycombe. Won the NCAA XC. He holds the Ivy record in the mile, 1500m, 3000m and 5000m. And he still has another year. I don’t think it’s even close.

You have heard of Frank Shorter, haven't you???

I kind of overlooked him. My bad.

Ever hear of John Paul Jones (not the admiral)?

The Led Zeppelin guitarist?

IF you're only counting distance runners, that's an accurate list. Gabby Thomas (Harvard) made the 2021 team, and she got silver (4x1) and bronze (200m)

Gabby Thomas is very fast - on at least two occasions faster than the sound from her doorbell.

LOL

The JPJ who won the first IC4A Cross-Country Championship. And he won it 3 times!!

Frank Shorter - Yale! Won OG marathon in 1972 and took silver in 1976 to suspected East German doper! Also world class in 10k!

Yes, along with drummer Robert Plant, singer Jimmy Page, and bassist John Bonham.

Those are not Ivy events. The question was about being the best Ivy League runner, not post Ivy League runner.

Point taken, but let's remember that

a) Shorter also won an NCAA title (and second in another race IIRC??), and

b) once an Ivy, always an Ivy.

1969 - Shorter won the 6-mile (29:00.2), runner-up in the 3-mile (14:43.4)

Shorter was also the runner-up in the 1969 indoor 2-mile

Bassist... (And Keyboardist)

I heard Frank Shorter was part of that whole Yale thing.

Ok, besides Shorter and Jennings who are both on the short list of greatest US distance runners ever, how about Craig Masback and Donn Cabral? Blanks has some work to do to match their career accomplishments. Not sure that Blanks has had a better NCAA career than Cabral either, but of course, the former is not done.